Banking

Bloomberg Mario Draghi’s silence on the future of quantitative easing is complicating a key aspect of the European Central Bank’s policy process. The ECB president and his colleagues typically back up shifts in strategy with their economic projections, which are based on market indicators that include expectations for future policy. Except that less than four months before the current asset-purchase ...

Bloomberg The Bank of Japan should stop being obsessed with its 2 percent inflation target given prices and interest rates around the world remain subdued, says the former currency chief at the Ministry of Finance. The world’s third-largest economy has recovered enough for the central bank to scale back stimulus policy to give itself some room to maneuver should conditions ...

Bloomberg K. Balasubramanian, group head for corporate banking at HDFC Bank Ltd., is leaving India’s most valuable bank to return to his previous employer Citigroup Inc., according to people familiar with the matter. Balasubramanian, 46, will join the corporate banking team as a Mumbai-based managing director for the New York-based lender, the people said. Representatives for both banks declined to ...

Bloomberg A planned shake up of Australia’s consumer price index could result in a significant paring of inflation expectations. Westpac Banking Corp. economist Justin Smirk has run the numbers on how the statistics bureau could revise its inflation basket to bring it up to speed with the latest spending patterns and technological changes. Lower core inflation could keep benchmark rates ...

Bloomberg A longtime Morgan Stanley broker and financial adviser pleaded not guilty to trading on secret tips about pending mergers and acquisitions leaked by a Bank of America Corp. consultant. Michael Siva, 55, got the information from a close friend, James Moodhe, whose daughter was dating the consultant at the centre of the case, Daniel Rivas, prosecutors said in an ...

Bloomberg Two years after Chinese policy makers devalued the yuan, an act that torpedoed global markets, traders are starting to view the currency as a sure bet. The yuan has surged 3.9 percent to be the best performer in Asia this quarter, while momentum indicators are near the highest since 2005. Typical risk-off events seem only to heighten demand for ...

Bloomberg Falling research prices under MiFID II are leaving asset managers with a problem: the risk of being accused of taking inducements for cheap analysis. The European Union’s regulatory overhaul will force buyside firms to justify the price they pay for analysis once its cost is unbundled from other services such as trading commissions. With banks in the midst of ...

Bloomberg With a blanket ban on initial coin offerings, China has sidestepped an issue plaguing regulators worldwide: are such tokens securities? A cross between crowdfunding and an initial public offering, ICOs—which have raised at least $1.25 billion globally so far —are the sale of tokens based on the blockchain, the technology underlying bitcoin. While they at least ostensibly promise the ...

Bloomberg A record rally in the offshore yuan is rekindling hope for the Dim Sum bond market. With China’s currency defying North Korea tensions to be Asia’s top performer over the past month, that bodes well for yuan-denominated debt sold in Hong Kong, according to BOC International Holdings Ltd. The Dim Sum market has been under pressure since 2015, when ...

Bloomberg The outlook for Oman’s banking sector was cut to negative by Moody’s Investors Service to reflect a reduction in the government’s ability to support the country’s banks, weaker economic growth and tightening liquidity. “We expect a softening in Oman’s operating environment, with fiscal consolidation amid prolonged oil price weakness weighing on economic growth,” Moody’s analyst Mik Kabeya said. “This ...